Salma Ashraf

Salma Ashraf’s work examines what it means to exist as a Muslim and woman of colour brought up in London, whose body, language and faith are politicised. Primarily through film, installation and photography, she is addressing socio-political concerns and the issues of representation by giving access to parts of herself that are otherwise unseen, such as her hair through a photographic process or through conversations with her mother at home. In her recent films, she flips the narrative and plays with what the media and government contribute to in the dehumanisation and surveillance of the Muslim community. She brings focus to the prevalent violent language and rhetoric in today’s society, through aesthetic and tactile relationships with the domestic and the beauty within the mundane. She’s come to realise that she makes as a way to connect and become comfortable with herself, her culture and her faith; to decolonise and embrace what she felt she needed to suppress growing up. Salma Ashraf is currently studying in her final year at the Slade School of Fine Art.